Roundup: Cantlay wins So. Cal. Amateur

Patrick Cantlay at the Travelers Championship
(
Associated Press
)

By Golfweek Staff

Sunday, July 10, 2011

UCLA sophomore Patrick Cantlay’s scintillating summer continued July 10 – this time at an amateur event – with a one-stroke victory at the 112th Southern California Golf Association Amateur Championship at San Gabriel Country Club.

Cantlay, coming off consecutive top-25 finishes at the U.S. Open, Travelers Championship and AT&T National on the PGA Tour, shot 69-70-65-66 for a 14-under 270 total, one shot better than Manav Shaw, a sophomore at the University of San Diego. Cantlay began the final round trailing by three shots, but quickly made up the difference with three birdies and an eagle on the first four holes. Shaw bogeyed the par-4 18th hole, missing a 4-foot par putt, and Cantlay got up-and-down for par from a greenside bunker, blasting out to within 1 inch before tapping in for the victory.

“It’s nerve wracking,” Cantlay said when asked about the tense finish. “You’re trying to do the best you can, and every shot means a ton, but it’s the most fun you can have on the golf course.”

He plans to take three weeks off before playing the Western Amateur on Aug. 1-6 at North Shore Country Club in Glenview, Ill.

• • •

University of Washington junior Chris Williams held off future Huskies teammate Cheng-Tsung Pan and BYU junior Zac Blair by a shot to win the Sahalee Players Championship on July 8 at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash.

“It’s by far the biggest win I’ve had,” said Williams, who said he thought it would help his chances to make the U.S. Walker Cup team that will face Great Britain & Ireland this September.

“This is a big event and people pay attention to that. . . . They will look at this win, and hopefully it will bode well for me (with the Walker Cup selection committee).”

Williams, of Moscow, Idaho, who won his sectional qualifier for the U.S. Open in the first week of June, shot 1-over 73 in the final round and finished at 1-under 287 but not before being pushed by Blair (68) and Pan (72), an incoming Huskies freshman who had three birdies in his last six holes.

Bill Walbert couldn't make his qualifier for the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship. Luckily, his partner Brent Grant shot 9-under 63 playing his own ball to earn the pair a trip to The Olympic Club next year.

Teen qualifies for U.S. Am Four-Ball without partner

Brent Grant, 18, qualified for the 2015 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship without his partner.
(
Photo Courtesy of Hawaii State Golf Association
)

At Royal Melbourne Golf Club, a handful of Australians are taking advantage of having the Asia-Pacific Amateur move south to their homeland. Two Aussies lead the field, and five more are T-11 or better.